Grab These Rhode Island-Made Pumpkins Before They Sell Out
Peter Pots Pottery's whimsical collection of handcrafted jack-o'-lanterns go on sale at 9 p.m. Sept. 11.
Peter Pots Pottery unveils its highly anticipated 2025 collection of ceramic pumpkins online at 9 p.m. Sept. 11. Photo courtesy of Peter Pots Pottery.
Move over, Labubus.
Turns out some of the hottest collectibles around are right here in Little Rhody, and you can buy some tonight — if your timing’s right.
At 9 p.m. sharp, Peter Pots Pottery will roll out its yearly batch of handcrafted pumpkins online to eager collectors around the nation. But you must click quickly: The whimsical designs sell out in minutes.
“It has just caught on like crazy,” says Jeffrey Greene, who runs the West Kingston firm his parents founded as RISD students in 1948. “We thought people would get a pumpkin and that would be it. No. People need a new pumpkin every year. And if they have four grandchildren, they have to get one for every grandchild.”
Most of the ceramic designs are whimsical and fun — think mischievous cats, grinning jack-o’-lanterns and fall motifs — but others are intricate and highly detailed, selling for hundreds of dollars. Standard pumpkins start at $45 and come with a flickering LED tealight to place inside for a ghoulish glow. Each one is handmade and distinctive, with the most detailed ones given names and special spots of honor on the website (aka “Peter’s Pumpkin Patch”).
Some of last year’s pumpkins designed by the craftspeople at Peter Pots Pottery. Photo courtesy of Peter Pots Pottery.
Potters start making the pumpkins in March, carving a few at a time after the day’s work of crafting, glazing and firing Peter Pots’ well-loved tableware and bakeware pieces is done. This year’s harvest is impressive: Potters made 900 pumpkins in all.
They’re available in three glaze colors: white, green and “pumpkin bread,” a warm orange-brown.
The jack-o’-lanterns started as a whim about a decade ago. Someone had a small pumpkin and thought it would be fun to make a mold from it. That year they crafted a few pitchers shaped like gourds and four pumpkins and sold them in the shop.
“It was no big deal,” Greene says. “We figured we’d quadruple that number the next year. Now we’re up to 900.”
The first batch of pumpkins go online tonight at 9 p.m. You can see a preview at peterpots.com/peters-pumpkin-patch. The remaining designs will be released online at 9 p.m. on consecutive Thursdays: Sept. 18, Sept. 25 and Oct. 2. The final batch — around 400 or so — will be available in West Kingston on Saturday, Oct. 11, from 10 a.m.–2 p.m., at the store’s annual Pumpkin Bash.
But again, you’ll need to act quickly: People start lining up outside the store at 8 a.m.
“People take their pumpkins very seriously,” says Greene.
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